Editorial EDITOR Nick Lipley Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3166 Email: [email protected] EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jim Bethel Senior lecturer and nurse practitioner in emergency care, University of Wolverhampton Hannah Bryant Resuscitation officer, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham Jennifer Critchley Urgent care centre emergency nurse practitioner, Benalla, and senior lecturer, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Shelley Cummings Professional lead for safeguarding, Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust, Surrey Rachel Lyons Associate clinical professor of nursing, Rutgers University, Newark NJ Lorna McInulty Senior lecturer in emergency and unscheduled care, University of Central Lancashire Mike Parker Lecturer in clinical nursing at the University of York Mike Paynter Consultant nurse, Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Andrew Rideout Advanced nurse practitioner, emergency department, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary Linsey Sheerin Lead nurse in emergency care at Antrim Area Hospital, Northern Health and Social Care Trust
How do we fix emergency care? What a winter it has been for emergency care services: possibly the worst for a generation, with four-hour operational standards being missed and huge pressure heaped on healthcare staff across the UK. Once again, patients have been waiting for more than 12 hours at a time and trusts have been declaring major incidents, and the usual explanations have been given: an ageing population, lack of access to services and lack of collaboration between care sectors (analysis, pages 8-9 and 11).
Acting assistant editor Jennifer Sprinks Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3148 Email: [email protected] Production editor Duncan Tyler Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3133 Email: [email protected] Administration manager Helen Hyland Email: [email protected] Administration assistant Sandra Lynch BUSINESS UNIT Display advertisements Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3123 Classified advertisements Tel: +44 (0)20 8423 1333
But it is not as if the situation was unforeseen. Back in October, RCN acute and emergency care adviser JP Nolan warned that a ‘perfect storm of unfavourable conditions’ was coming. Even over the summer, the Society of Acute Medicine and the College of Emergency Medicine said that overcrowding and ‘exit block’ were putting lives at risk.
EMERGENCY NURSE RCN Publishing Company The Heights, 59-65 Lowlands Road Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex HA1 3AW Emergency Nurse is indexed, abstracted and/or published online in the following media: British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Medline and Ovid ABC APPLICATION APPROVED 8,160 (Jan-Dec 2013) SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT Royal College of Nursing Journal subscription department, Copse Walk, Cardiff Gate Business Park, Cardiff CF23 8XG. Tel: +44 (0)345 772 6100 Print edition rates Personal: from £73 a year in the UK and Europe, and from £121 a year in the rest of the world. Institutional: from £446 a year Email: [email protected]
Nor is it as if we are unacquainted with these factors. The question we must answer now is not one of what we must do but of how we do it.
©2015 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers. ISSN 1354-5752 (print). ISSN 2047-8984 (online) Printed by Stephens and George, Merthyr Tydfil, on acid-free paper Acceptance of an advertisement does not constitute a recommendation or an endorsement of a product or service, either by the RCN or RCN Publishing WEBSITE en.rcnpublishing.com
Once again, patients have been waiting for more than 12 hours at a time and the usual explanations have been given
AUTHOR GUIDELINES rcnpublishing.com/r/en-author-guidelines OPEN ACCESS rcnpublishing.com/page/authors/ open-access-frequently-asked-questions
Nick Lipley Editor
As ever, the answers are likely to come from front line staff, which is why I welcome the RCN Emergency Care Association’s decision to hold its annual conference next month, rather than in the autumn (diary, page 16). No doubt, the difficulties faced by emergency nurses across the country in recent months will feature highly at the conference in Manchester, as will the latest proposals from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on emergency department staffing levels (news, page 7). With a general election in May, the conference offers us a rare opportunity to discuss how to engage parliamentary candidates in debate about emergency care services, and to gain their support for how we want to improve them. Also next month, senior lecturer and emergency care research lead at the University of Hertfordshire Tricia Scott takes up post as the new consultant editor of Emergency Nurse. I am sure you will join me in welcoming her to the role and will support her with your ongoing contributions to the journal.
Our mission Emergency Nurse encourages innovation and promotes professional excellence in all pre-hospital and emergency care settings. The journal is editorially independent and opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal College of Nursing or those of contributors’ employing organisations.
Follow us: @ENJournalRCN EMERGENCY NURSE
Read more at: nursingblog.rcnpublishing.co.uk
Visit us at: Emergency Nurse February 2015 | Volume 22 | Number 9
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Oct 14, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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How do we fix emergency care? What a winter it has been for emergency care services: possibly the worst for a generation, with four-hour operational standards being missed and huge pressure heaped on healthcare staff across the UK. Once again, patients have been waiting for more than 12 hours at a time and trusts have been declaring major incidents, and the usual explanations have been given: an ageing population, lack of access to services and lack of collaboration between care sectors (analysis, pages 8-9 and 11).
Acting assistant editor Jennifer Sprinks Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3148 Email: [email protected] Production editor Duncan Tyler Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3133 Email: [email protected] Administration manager Helen Hyland Email: [email protected] Administration assistant Sandra Lynch BUSINESS UNIT Display advertisements Tel: +44 (0)20 8872 3123 Classified advertisements Tel: +44 (0)20 8423 1333
But it is not as if the situation was unforeseen. Back in October, RCN acute and emergency care adviser JP Nolan warned that a ‘perfect storm of unfavourable conditions’ was coming. Even over the summer, the Society of Acute Medicine and the College of Emergency Medicine said that overcrowding and ‘exit block’ were putting lives at risk.
EMERGENCY NURSE RCN Publishing Company The Heights, 59-65 Lowlands Road Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex HA1 3AW Emergency Nurse is indexed, abstracted and/or published online in the following media: British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Medline and Ovid ABC APPLICATION APPROVED 8,160 (Jan-Dec 2013) SUBSCRIPTION DEPARTMENT Royal College of Nursing Journal subscription department, Copse Walk, Cardiff Gate Business Park, Cardiff CF23 8XG. Tel: +44 (0)345 772 6100 Print edition rates Personal: from £73 a year in the UK and Europe, and from £121 a year in the rest of the world. Institutional: from £446 a year Email: [email protected]
Nor is it as if we are unacquainted with these factors. The question we must answer now is not one of what we must do but of how we do it.
©2015 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers. ISSN 1354-5752 (print). ISSN 2047-8984 (online) Printed by Stephens and George, Merthyr Tydfil, on acid-free paper Acceptance of an advertisement does not constitute a recommendation or an endorsement of a product or service, either by the RCN or RCN Publishing WEBSITE en.rcnpublishing.com
Once again, patients have been waiting for more than 12 hours at a time and the usual explanations have been given
AUTHOR GUIDELINES rcnpublishing.com/r/en-author-guidelines OPEN ACCESS rcnpublishing.com/page/authors/ open-access-frequently-asked-questions
Nick Lipley Editor
As ever, the answers are likely to come from front line staff, which is why I welcome the RCN Emergency Care Association’s decision to hold its annual conference next month, rather than in the autumn (diary, page 16). No doubt, the difficulties faced by emergency nurses across the country in recent months will feature highly at the conference in Manchester, as will the latest proposals from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on emergency department staffing levels (news, page 7). With a general election in May, the conference offers us a rare opportunity to discuss how to engage parliamentary candidates in debate about emergency care services, and to gain their support for how we want to improve them. Also next month, senior lecturer and emergency care research lead at the University of Hertfordshire Tricia Scott takes up post as the new consultant editor of Emergency Nurse. I am sure you will join me in welcoming her to the role and will support her with your ongoing contributions to the journal.
Our mission Emergency Nurse encourages innovation and promotes professional excellence in all pre-hospital and emergency care settings. The journal is editorially independent and opinions expressed in it do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal College of Nursing or those of contributors’ employing organisations.
Follow us: @ENJournalRCN EMERGENCY NURSE
Read more at: nursingblog.rcnpublishing.co.uk
Visit us at: Emergency Nurse February 2015 | Volume 22 | Number 9
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Oct 14, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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